Observational session control

["Creager, Robert S" <CreagRS@LOUISVILLE.STORTEK.COM>]

Hey folks,

I'll be working on a program which will take a set of desired observational
data and direct the Mark IV through a TAIT socket interface.  The initial
command set could be as follows:

dark <count>	# How many dark exposures to take through out the night
bias <count>     # How many bias exposures to take through out the night
start <time>      # The time in hours (fractional also) to delay after
sunset before starting
park <time>      # The time in hours (fractional also) to park before
sunrise

field <location and count>	# The location and number of exposures
desired for a field.
				# exposures would be evenly spaced through
out the night
follow <location>	# follow the
scan 		# continually takes individual pictures at some configured
degree intervals
		# these locations would be tracked so "equal" coverage would
occur

The priority would be <field>, <follow>, <scan>, with multiple entries in
<field> and <follow> being first come, first seen and tracked.  For
simplicity, <follow> would track the first available location till it sets,
with forays into <field> when appropriate.  Once the locations sets, the
next available <field> would be tracked.

I figured this would be a good simple start, but what do you think?  Since I
have not written any software yet, I'd love to hear that there is a grammar
that's already specked, or public software already written, or this is
really bad and you should do the grammar like this, or you really should
include this and that and the other thing...

Future enhancements would include ability to set maximum airmass/zenith for
the entire session and/or individual <field> and <follow>,  pre-emptive
control (like from an e-mail alert or something), priority assignments for
<follow> to jump to a new <follow> location without waiting for the first to
set, observation date ranges (which could be open ended on either
start/stop) for <field> and <follow>, moon phase and distance specifications
for session, <field> and <follow>.  Anything else?

First pass, the input commands would be file based, with interruptions
handled by sockets.  Support would likely be added for a dB at some point.
Maybe even a graphical construction environment (yea, right).

Cheers,
Rob

Robert Creager
Senior Software Engineer
ATS Library Engineering
303.673.2365 V
303.661.5379 F
888.912.4458 P
StorageTek
INFORMATION made POWERFUL